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Review: Alberta Premium Dark Horse Canadian Whisky

Big things are afoot at Alberta Distillers, as today Beam will be launching Alberta Premium® Dark Horse Canadian Whisky in my home Province of Alberta. This whisky promises to build upon the success of the Alberta Premium® brand which has won accolades for being one of the best rye whiskies in the entire world. In fact, Jim Murray, one of the world’s most renowned whisky critics, not only thinks the Alberta Premium Canadian Whisky is good, he thinks it is great! For years he has extolled the virtues of the Alberta Premium in his Whisky Bible naming it the best Canadian Whisky in 2006, 2007, and 2009. (The year that is missing, 2008 was the year that the Alberta Premium 25 Year Old won the award.)

According to my contacts at Beam, Alberta Distillers Limited is raising the bar with the new Dark Horse Whisky because they believe that Canadian whisky connoisseurs are ready for a bolder, richer tasting premium whisky. The Alberta Premium Dark Horse Whisky is designed to meet this challenge with a distinct new flavor profile which is to represent a bold new experience for the Canadian rye whisky drinker.

This new deluxe Canadian whisky builds upon its rye base with an added touch of sherry and bourbon flavour. The whisky is aged in heavily charred American white oak barrels, and represents a blend of 12-year-old rye, and 6-year-old small pot rye. It is bottled at a higher than normal 45 % alcohol by volume, and is being launched as a premium Canadian sipping whisky designed to deliver, (quoting from the information sheets here):

Although this is intended as a sipping whisky, I could not resist constructing a very nice cocktail which is appropriately called, the Dark Horse Cocktail.

Please enjoy my review and my cocktail libation, Cheers!

(Note: As more information has come to light, I have learned that the “added touch” of bourbon flavour is a whopping 8 to 8.5 % by volume addition of corn whiskey to the blend, and the “added touch” of sherry flavour is about 0.5 % by volume addition of sherry. These percentages stretch the definition of “added touch” and this knowledge which came to me after the review was written serves to illuminate some of my comments in the review especially with respect to balance.)